The image was taken during 5 weeks of traveling on an overlander camping tour through east and south Africa in 2015.

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Photo: Thomas Fuhrmann · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesArtiodactylaGiraffidae

Mammals

🦒Giraffe

Giraffa camelopardalis (Linnaeus, 1758)

De noordelijke giraffe of giraf (Giraffa camelopardalis) is een evenhoevige met een zeer lange nek en lange en slanke poten. Het is het hoogste dier ter wereld: een volwassen giraffe kan een hoogte van rond de vijf meter bereiken. Het jong van een giraffe is al van de geboorte 2 meter. De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort werd als Cervus camelopardalis in 1758 gepubliceerd door Carl Linnaeus in de tiende editie van Systema naturae.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos

418

Photos

Measurements

vs you

≈ 13× your weight

Also called

northern giraffe

Conservation status

VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2018.

Population trendDecreasing

Key measurements

Body mass: 800 kg
Body length: 4.45 m
Shoulder height: 3.06 m
Top speed: 56 km/h
Bite force: not recorded
Maximum lifespan: 39 years

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Giraffe

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass

800 kg

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

800 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high

Body length

4.45 m

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height

3.06 maverage2.82–3.3 m · range across sexes

Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

Male3.3 mDagg 1971, Mammalian Species 5, p.4; range from KingdonDagg's 3.3 m appears in a sentence about captive giraffe. Do not confuse with total height (~5.3 m male), which is a different measurement.
Female2.82 mKingdon, The Kingdon Field Guide to African MammalsValue is the midpoint of the published range.

Standing height

5.28 maverage4.85–5.7 m · range across sexes

Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

Male5.7 mAnimal Diversity Web, Giraffa camelopardalis account, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Giraffa_camelopardalis/ADW: 'Male giraffes (bulls) stand a total of 5.7 m from the ground to their horns: 3.3 m at the shoulders with a long neck of 2.4 m.' Total standing height to the horn tips — a different quantity from the 3.3 m shoulder height also recorded, and the one a to-scale drawing needs.
Female4.85 mAnimal Diversity Web, Giraffa camelopardalis account, https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Giraffa_camelopardalis/ADW: 'Female giraffes (cows) are 0.7 to 1 m shorter than bulls.' Applied to the 5.7 m bull figure: 4.7-5.0 m; value is the midpoint.

Top speed

56 km/h

Details ↓

Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. Compilations give 55.98, 58.41 and 60.0 km/h.

Source: Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685, Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238 and Garland 1983, J Zool 199:157; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation

Brain mass

639 g

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan

39 years

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0